WHEN Newsletter Q1 2015- Federal Safety Standards for Heavy Trucks -Part 3

WHEN — Q1 2015

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Dayton Parts LLC (continued from page 3)

In 1953, Willard Rockwell decides to merge Timken Detroit Axle with Standard Steel and Spring to form the Rockwell Spring and Axle Company. After various mergers with other automotive suppliers, the company becomes comprised of about 20 factories across the Upper Midwestern US and southern Ontario and in 1958 Rockwell Spring and Axle becomes the Rockwell Standard Corporation. Rockwell Standard then acquired Los Angeles based North American Aviation to form North American Rockwell in September of 1967. It then purchased Miehle-Goss-Dexter, the largest supplier of printing presses, and Collins Radio, a major avionics supplier. Finally in 1973, Rockwell Standard merged with Rockwell Manufacturing, which was run by his son Willard Rockwell, Jr., to form Rockwell International. Mr. Rockwell, Sr. served as the official Chairman of the Board until his death in 1978, at the age of 90. His legacy in the heavy truck industry goes without saying. Next we’ll look an engineer, that you’ve probably never heard of,who worked for many years under Mr. Timken and then Mr. Rockwell. He was another inventor that was way ahead of the curve or as we say the “father” of the s-cam brake, L. Ray Buckendale. L. Ray Buckendale — Lawrence Ray Buckendale was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1892. While an undergraduate at the University of Michigan he worked as a draftsman for University Motor Car Company and the Dermot Car Company also a machinist for J.N. Smith. Upon graduating in 1916, he went to work as a draftsman at the Timken Detroit Axle Company for Mr. Henry Timken. The young Mr. Buckendale already had an exceptional record in engineering design. When WWI broke out, he took a leave of absence and served as a Captain in the engineering division of the Army’s Ordinance Dept. as a technical officer on tanks. He was sent to London to follow through on the design details for development of the Mark VIII tank and then returned to the US to oversee its production at the Locomobile Company (an automobile factory) in Bridgeport, CT. This tank was considered an engineering marvel in its day and rightly so.

In 1919, he joined a new technical society founded in 1905 by Henry Ford and Andrew Riker (who worked at the Locomobile Company) called the Society of Automotive Engineers or SAE which had such members as Thomas Edison, Glenn Curtiss (inventor of the first aeronautical engine), Glenn L. Martin (founder of what is now called Lockheed Martin) and Orville Wright. Throughout the years between WWI and WWII, Mr. Buckendale worked very closely with the Army Ordinance engineers as a member of the SAE War Engineering Board. He contributed greatly to the development of many heavy duty trucks and tank transport vehicles that helped win WWII and in 1946 he was elected President of SAE.

Mark VIII Tank

Mr. Buckendale’s greatest desire was to develop potential in young people so for this reason the L. Ray Buckendale Lecture was created in 1953 to honor his memory. This lecture provides an opportunity for young engineers and students to reap the benefits of sound, practical information on topics within the commercial vehicle industry from the voices of the most esteemed and involved members of the industry. On the following page, are the images from his original patent for the s-cam brake filed in 1941. (Looks pretty familiar?)

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